Where's Waldo??

I was sitting here scanning some old photos into my computer (compliments of my SIL Mary Ann) and ran across this old birthday party photo and it is just cracking me up!!  I want you to look closely at this photo and see if you can spot my son. 

Helpful Hint:  He is the happiest little boy in the world!!  ROFL!

Happy Anniversary Baby ♥

Yup---19 years ago today my sweetheart and I tied the knot! I feel very blessed to have such a friend and companion to share my life with all these years.  This is especially true considering what we have gone through over the last 6 months, with the cancer and treatments.  Mark has been my rock and a true and loving helpmate, and I don't think I could have gotten through all of this without him.  He is a true blessing and I thank God for him every day.

 How about if I tell you 10 facts that you might not know about my hubby and I?? 1...We were set up by a mutual friend. A friend that I worked with at the nursing home kept on bugging me to call this "guy who is PERFECT for you!" I never was the kind of gal who called guys in the first place so it took a long time (around 6 months!) for me to finally tell her that I would call him if she would just shut up!



2...I had never dated much---I married my high school sweetheart the first time around and had only been divorced for about a year when all this started. I really didn't even care to have a relationship with anyone. I was enjoying going out on occasional dates and having time to myself! Mark was a bachelor and hadn't been married before. 3...The guy my friend wanted me to call was named Mark---and there were 2 other men who I was dating occasionally, at the time...both named Mark. LOL At least I didn't have to worry about calling them the wrong names!



4...I totally missed our first date!! LOL As I was getting ready to leave, some people I knew came knocking on my door. By the time I got them to leave and got to the place we were supposed to meet, Mark was walking out the back door as I was walking in the front one! 5...I went to a local bar one night, to meet up with some friends, and ended up meeting this handsome and sweet guy--we really hit it off right away! We spent most of the evening talking and shooting pool and dancing to the great blues band that was there (both die hard blues fans!). Come to find out....guess who it was?? Yup! LOL Want to know how I found out it was him?? When we had arranged our first date (the one I missed), he had told me to look for his bright green coat (the one that I had seen going out the back door !!) Soooo.....at one point in the evening he went to grab a pack of smokes out of his coat that was hanging on a chair over in the corner....tah dah! Yup...that crazy bright green coat!! I just couldn't believe it! 6...We seem to have a weird psychic connection--even from the beginning! Seriously, the first night I met him, we were talking about families (Mark comes from a large family) and I asked him to guess how many kids my Grandparents had had....(my Dad comes from a LARGE family!) and Mark looked at me for a minute and then said "17". Just out of the blue!! He was exactly right! LOL AND Now...after all these years of marriage, we totally are in each other's head! It's a little weird really.



7....I was actually a little bummed out that I met Mark. I really had no intention of getting married again, at least so soon. I was enjoying being single for really the first time in my life, had a nice adorable little apartment all to myself, a good job. AND I knew, as soon as we met, that all that was over! LOL Oooh, the Lord works in mysterious ways!

8...When we knew that things were getting serious between us, I had to tell him my sad news. I was unable to get pregnant. I had met his family and saw how he loved them all and was so good with all his nieces and nephews....and I had to tell him that he might want to break it off with me and find some nice girl to marry and have babies with. I thought for sure that would be the deal breaker! lol Nope, silly man....he wanted me anyways. :o) Turns out---I was only unable to get pregnant with my FIRST hubby! LOL ( Guess who ended up preggy right away? huh?) 9...Mark proposed to me and gave me a ring...and I turned him down. I loved him but I really didn't want to get married again. He told me to keep the ring, and I put it in my underwear drawer and kept it there for a long time. He finally convinced me that we were going to be together forever and I might just as well get used to the idea...and he was going to be my husband and that was that. Period. He was so right. We got married at the courthouse. 10...In 2007 we finally got our church wedding ♥

CHEERS!

Graduation Day

Today is the day my baby boy graduates from High School.  Oh my, what a journey! lol  He was a typical boy and scared us a few times with some pretty bleak report cards over the years...but he worked hard and buckled down and got the job done! We're proud.  Congratulation Joe ♥  

Our lovely niece Maurisa is graduating also--from the same school.  It's been so nice that those two got to go through high school together.  We love you 'Rissa and are proud of you too ♥ 

                                       (Rissa is the cute little brunette on the end)

I'm glad that Rissa's folks will be sitting with us at the Graduation ceremony....Mary Ann cries like I do, so I won't be sitting there bawling all by myself! LOL  I suppose I'll have to bring a big stack of vintage hankies with me tonight!

I was excited to find my Laughing Butterflies chest in the running in Linda's Top 5 Etsy Finds blog posting!  If you have a minute, pop over there and cast a vote for your favorite!

Got Cookies??

Hello.  Today is all about cookies.  *waiting while the applause dies down*

First off...I was contacted by the sweet Joanna of BakedByJoanna to participate in the Mix It Up Cookie Challenge that she is having on her BLOG! 

I've donated a one of my cute little birdy potholders and then there is also a really, really cute frilly apron involved....!!!  Stop by and join in on the fun!  Stop by her blog post for complete details.

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                                         NotYourMamasMix.etsy.com

Now, I know you guys are already jealous of the really great prizes I've been winning lately (it's ok) --and now I get to rub another one in your face! LOL I mean "share the good news with you"! I didn't exactly win COOKIES from NotYourMamasMix---but she does have COOKIES in her shop, so I'm gonna let it slide! What I did win was some really yummy and fun Mug Cake Mixes! You mix them up in a coffee mug and pop them into the microwave--how dangerous is that?? Cake at a moments notice. *shiver*

She has such yummy concoctions as Gooey Chocolate Toffee (which I tried first....lets just say that I've never licked a coffee mug before...) and Double Chocolate Chocolate Chip (you can never have enough chocolate)! She also has cookies mixes and scone mixes and  cocoa mixes too!


NEXT, I was gonna share a link for some free Oreos (or whatever Nabisco cookie you happen to love), but I just double checked the link and the coupons are already gone for this month!  I'm gonna give you the link anyways because they give away coupons every month, all you have to do is LIKE their Facebook page and remember to check in for free coupons on the dates they tell you to! 

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And last, but not least...how about a recipe for some delish Snickerdoodles! 

Snickerdoodles Cookies


Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

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1/4 cup sugar (topping)

4 teaspoons cinnamon (topping)


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Cream butter, sugar, and eggs.

3. Blend in flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Shape dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls.

4. Mix 4 teaspoons cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar in a shallow bowl.   Roll the balls in this mixture.
5. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet.

6. Bake 8-10 minutes. Remove immediately from baking sheet.

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OH!  One more cookie thing to add...I was out reading some of my fav blogs and see that our friend Lori from Faerie Window has a recipe for some cookies that she switched up for summer!  Stop by and give her recipe a shot! 

I'm gonna go take some butter out of the freezer....I have a sudden  hankering for cookies......

HOW did you EVER find ME?

Thanks to RabbitHollowPrims, I now have a sweet little "how did you find me" survey tacked onto my Paypal payment page!  Sweet.  I've had 3 transactions since I added it and so far 2 of them took the survey--pretty good #'s if you ask me. 

So Karen, you may ask, just how did you go about getting a little survey on your Paypal page??  Let me tell you, it was easy as pie!  (mmmm....pie......)

1)  Log into your Paypal

2)  Click on your PROFILE

3)  Click MORE OPTIONS from the dropdown list
4)  Under SELLINGPREFERENCES look down the list until you find CUSTOM
     PAYMENT PAGES  and click that.

5)  Click OPTIONS ---> MERCHANT SERVICE OPTIONS

6)  Put a check in the box for ADD A CUSTOMER SERVICE SURVEY

7)  Customize your survey to ask what you want!  Here's what I did, I wanted to know how people found my shop, so I asked the question

"How did you find Mrs. Kwitty's Cottage at Etsy?"  

and the the responses:

Etsy search

Google Search

Friends/Family

Facebook

Blog

Of course, you can ask whatever question and responses you want.  

Remember to hit SAVE.  That's it.  Fun huh?

To see if anyone answers your survey, just click DETAILS on your account page and at the bottom of the page it will show you the survey results if the person took it.    :o) 

Sweet Summer Berries

I forgot to share my pretty new treasury with you bloggy friends!! 

Sweet Summer Berries

Yummy!

Queen of Cheap

OK--so, Mrs. Kwitty has always been a thrifty gal, or frugal, or some may actually call her cheap?  Whatev.  I wanted to be able to stay home and raise my kids. 

(who can blame me...look how cute they were!)

I actually thought for many years that I was unable to have children, and I wanted them so badly.  Turns out that I was only unable to have children with my first husband! lol ---my second one, the good one--"the keeper"--right away!  Preggers!  I was 30 when we had Joe.  Then we had Linds 18 months later, almost to the day! 

(  "the keeper")

 

We made a decision then that I would stay home with the kids and we would somehow manage it financially.  So we did...or, so we DO! lol  Barely, by the skin of our teeth, but we do.  This has been an especially trying period because,  due to illness, I haven't been able to dedicate as much time to my crafting over the last year  (crafting buys our groceries and the cat's groceries and other household necessities and the occasional ice cream treat!).  

(Rosie dreaming of kitty groceries and ice cream treats)

So... with Joe's graduation  coming up we really had to put on our thinking caps on how to save a few bucks!

 Anywhooo, I came up with the brilliant idea that we would make our own Grad announcement/Open House invites and save the $275 that they wanted for the "official" school ones! (can you believe that?) ugh.  I have a lot of respect for graphic designers...it took me about 3 hours to do this! lol  The challenge was tying in Denfeld's maroon and gold with Joe's blue and green!  I'm pretty proud that I was able to accomplish that--and it took a lot of trial and error, but I did it!

Here's the reason I'm officially taking on the "Queen of Cheap" title on this one...I designed this to fit the picture size of 4" x 6", downloaded it to Walgreens and just happened to hit a sale in their photo lab!  50 prints for $5.   So, I'm thinking I just saved us about $270! lol   *takes a bow*  Now, we have more money to spend on the important things....like cake!

So, if you are in the neighborhood, stop by and celebrate this wonderful occasion with us!  We are so proud of Joe and all his hard work and dedication!  ♥♥♥